"Jonathan," she snapped. "His name was Jonathan."
"Right, Jonathan. High school is bad enough without any extra trauma. I know that. I am so, so sorry if I hurt your feelings."
She snorted.
I raised my eyebrows. "What?"
"That was your apology?"
"It was."
She slapped me, leaving behind a painful sting on the left side of my face. I looked at her, too stunned to be angry.
George took a step closer. "Slap Sarah again, you bitch, and I'm going to blow smoke in your face."
She waved a hand in George's direction and he froze in place and his eyes shut. His cigarette fell to the ground.
I blinked. "What did you do?"
Stacy glared at me. "Your moral support was getting in the way. Don't worry, he'll be fine, but this is a conversation between the two of us, Sarah, and I want it to stay that way."
I curled my hands into fists at my sides, willing myself to stay calm. My left cheek burned from the slap. "I apologized to you. What do you want from me now? I haven't done anything wrong."
She shook her head and took a moment to brush the blowing snow off of her red coat.
"Isn't it funny how everyone has a completely different view of themselves? How everyone is the hero of their own story and other people are the villains?"
"I'm not a villain."
"You're a vampire."
"Vampires are not villains." God, how many times did I have to explain this to people?
"We're just like humans only we have a few more issues to deal with. It's the choices we make that make us good or bad. I'd think that somebody who calls herself a witch would understand that. I'm not seeing any green skin, warts, and broomsticks around."
"No, no broomsticks," she said evenly. "But I did bring one of these along."
She pulled a long, sharp wooden stake from the inside of her coat.
My mouth went dry and my heart began to pound hard against my rib cage. Just the sight of the stake was enough to give me an immediate anxiety attack. The last time I'd seen one had been when it was yanked out of my chest.
"It's funny how just the memory of a major trauma can bring it back as if it only just happened," Stacy said, and her smile was back. It made me think that somehow she knew about what had happened to me. My attention didn't leave the piece of sharpened wood for a moment. "Memories are triggered by many things. A smell, a taste. Our senses are amazing for total recall. It's as if we're right back when the bad thing happened. We can live it again and again and again." She moved the stake back and forth between her hands.
"Just put that away," I said shakily.
"Why? Do I seem threatening? I'm just holding it. I'm not trying to do anything with it, am
I?"
I had dealt with my stake issues. I had. It was an unpleasant memory, as she'd just said, but I'd gotten over it. Only… only I hadn't. Maybe I wasn't dealing with what had happened to me as well as I thought I had. The stake itself wasn't doing me any harm. But
I knew what it felt like to be staked. To come as close to being dead as I'd ever come before.
Being staked had been the most terrifying experience of my life.
"I said I was sorry," I said. "What more do you want from me?"
"That's a very good question. Well, I suppose we can start by you telling me what it's like to be one of the bad guys."
"I'm not one of the bad guys!"
Her cold smile widened. "There is so much you don't know, Sarah, and your boyfriend hasn't even begun to fill you in on the subject. But I guess he's too busy trying to drink your tasty blood, isn't he? I suppose it's only a matter of time before he finally goes completely off the wagon and tears out your throat before you can do the same to him.
I've heard he has a bit of a problem keeping his fangs to himself when he's around certain women."
My eyes narrowed and I got my breath back when she invoked Thierry's name.
"Don't you dare mention him. I don't know how you know what you do, but my life and his is none of your damn business."
"I mentioned nightwalkers to you before. Have you learned anything about them?"
My attention was still focused on that stake. "Mostly that they no longer exist."
"Nightwalkers couldn't stand sunlight, they thirsted for blood from humans with warm flesh and beating hearts. They were repelled by crosses and holy water. And yes, they were wiped out." The light on the lamp post above us flickered. "As a matter of fact, Thierry is the one who worked side by side with the hunters to get rid of them all, or most of them. From what I've learned, he was the head of some vampire faction."
It felt colder in the park all of a sudden. Thierry was the vampire who created the Ring—
the vampire council—originally, but he'd walked away from his leadership role a hundred years ago. "I don't believe anything you say."
"He felt that these nightwalkers were dangerous to vampire and human alike, so being the brave and noble man he was, he secretly met with the leaders of the hunters to give them information that would help to off all of those nasty vamps. Maybe he was right to do that.
Maybe it was for the best. But if you ask me, it kind of smacks of genocide, don't you think? Part of his bargain was for them to leave the other vamps alone, but hunters aren't exactly good at keeping bargains, are they?"
I crossed my arms. Even though the temperature didn't majorly affect me anymore, I suddenly felt chilled right through to the bone. "If what you're telling me about these nightwalkers is true, then it would be like getting rid of a bunch of cockroaches. No big loss to the world. I don't think Thierry did the wrong thing at all."
She shook her head. "I figured that you would try to defend his actions. God, you trust so easily, don't you? Considering the well-known fact that he can't control his own monster when he's around you, it's a bit like him throwing stones from his glass coffin with what he did to the nightwalkers, don't you think?"
I glared at her. "You cursed me to be a nightwalker."
She nodded. "And I'm so thrilled with how well it turned out. I'm surprised Thierry can even come near you, let alone want to bite you. He devoted years to wiping things like you off the planet."
"I held up my end of the bargain. You've had your fun. Break the curse." I heard the desperation in my voice and I didn't like it at all. I wiped away more cold, stinging snow from my face.
She frowned. "Who said anything about a bargain?"
I breathed out a long steady breath. The thrall. Of course. I'd use the thrall on her to get her to do what I wanted.